The Venezuela Situation

Our very first ‘A Focus On…’ post was regarding the Venezuela situation. A few years on and the statistics we shared then have worsened, with now nearly 7.9 million refugees and migrants as a result of the issues there. This blog post will include more detail on the overview provided previously, and also cover developments since then.

The issues in Venezuela originated with the Bolivarian Revolution, which began in the early 1990s, evolved over the past few decades, and continues today. It is named after Simón Bolívar, a Venezuelan military officer and statesman who led various South American countries to independence from the Spanish Empire in the early 1800s. This is because it was started by Hugo Chávez, a Venezuelan military officer and politician, who said his goal was achieving a united nationalist left-wing society of the Hispanic world like Bolívar.

Chávez was elected as President in 1998, and held this position until his death in 2013. He invested in social reforms such as the nationalisation of key industries. This initially improved welfare, but the dependence on oil revenue meant such an emphasis on state control was not sustainable. Shortages of food, medicine and essential services therefore became a problem, which Chávez did acknowledge in part but blamed on an ‘economic war’ waged on Venezuela by outside influences such as the CIA. He pushed this narrative through extensive use of propaganda, and violently suppressing his opponents and critics. The opposition to Chávez did manage to organise a general strike from late 2002 to early 2003, with the goal of a general election being called. However, they did not achieve their desired outcome, and the strike worsened oil production and unemployment, resulting in a rise in violent crime which was not effectively tackled.

Chávez died in 2013, and was succeeded by Nicolás Maduro who held the position until he was ousted earlier this year. Maduro, formerly Vice President to Chávez, continued the Bolivarian Revolution he had begun and made few policy changes. This only worsened the pre-existing issues such as insecurity and violence, so 2014 saw a series of protests to which Maduro responded with excessive force and torture. In addition, the first parliamentary elections since Chávez’s death took place in 2015 and the opposition won. Maduro therefore used other means to retain power for himself and prevent it from passing to the elected National Assembly. He was then officially reelected in 2018, but the opposition said the election was illegitimate and named their own President. This was followed by international debate over the next few years as to who was the true leader of the country. Furthermore, the pandemic took place during this second term of Maduro’s leadership, and the economic effects of this worsened Venezuelas problems. He was again officially reelected in 2024, though this was again said by many to have been an illegitimate victory. Similarly to Chávez, Maduro in part acknowledged the crisis but said it was manufactured by the US.

At the start of this year, the US captured Maduro on the grounds of narcoterrorism, and he remains incarcerated in New York. Delcy Rodríguez has been the acting President since then, and has made some positive changes, including the release of political prisoners and improvements to health and education services. However, her former role as the Vice President to Maduro means the sentiments of the Bolivarian Revolution remain in place in Venezuelan government.

Due to this situation, nearly 7.9 million people have left Venezuela. More than 6.9 million of them are hosted in Latin American and Caribbean countries, which are overstretched and therefore present some of the same problems of insecurity faced in Venezuela. For example, half of all refugees and migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean cannot afford three meals a day and lack access to adequate housing. This can be seen to account for why some Venezuelans have been returning to their country of origin, despite more continuing to leave and seek international protection and humanitarian assistance.

For more information on the Venezuela situation, please see https://www.unhcr.org/uk/node/593 and https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cp3mvpm3933t.